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Doors Open Wider as Buddhist Center Grows

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THE state's only Buddhist center is inside a 19th-century farmhouse that rests on a grassy knoll in Bloomfield. On a quiet Sunday morning the hydrangeas near the back foyer were in bloom and children played near a picnic table under an oak tree. Several pairs of shoes bordered the back-porch doorway leading to the kitchen.

Inside, women with broad smiles prepared platters of mung bean noodles with black mushrooms, stir-fried eggplant and tofu marinated in a tomato base, steamed spring rolls with mint, and a custard of coconut milk and corn. The cooks placed plates of the food along with vases of gladioluses and zinnias at the base of two altars for the Buddha. The rest they spread around a long table in the dining room. Resettled After Fall of Saigon

The 15 or so Vietnamese attending the service included a 91-year-old woman dressed in a traditional silk smock and an 8-year-old boy with a high-low haircut. At 11 o'clock, they drifted into the front room and sat or kneeled on pillows in front of the main altar. The sound of a somber gong opened the service and was followed by a moment of meditation, then an hour of chanting in Vietnamese. Following the ceremony, Trang Le, a business professor from Saigon who came to Connecticut in 1979, led a discussion on the Heart Sutra, a 200-word parable that contains the nucleus of Buddhist thought.

The Buddhists have made the farmhouse the center of their community since 1982, when a Hartford developer rented them the property for $1 a year. Yet ever since they arrived in Connecticut -- through a network of refugee resettlement programs that were created following the fall of Saigon in 1975 -- they have dreamed of building their own temple.

Five years ago they bought 17 acres in Ellington and have raised an additional $165,000 through donations and fund raising. Within a few months they plan to break ground and begin construction of the Buddhist Cultural Center of New England, which will include a temple, library, meeting house, meditation room and living quarters for a monk or visitors.

"We've always had to maintain a low profile because we never had the room to expand our community," said Hoai Vu, the director of the Bloomfield center and president of the Connecticut Buddhist Association, which has a membership of 200 families, including 12 Americans. "But when the new temple is in place we want to open our doors to greet everyone."

Binh Nguyen, the center's designer, said the project will cost about $400,000 to complete. A mechanical engineer and member of the association, he said that a Vietnamese architect from New York had drawn up the original plan but that the association had decided it would be too costly to build. Mr. Nguyen's plan calls for modest Colonial-style buildings with slightly curved eaves. The money they have raised so far will enable them to put in a road and parking lot, and build the meeting house, Mr. Vu said.

Until the late 70's, few of the Vietnamese Buddhists living in Connecticut had ever met. Most had lost everything to the war and few were fluent in English. Through a network set up by state social service agencies, they made contact and began worshiping in one another's homes. After hearing that the Vietnamese were looking for a temple, David T. Chase, a Hartford developer, offered his Simsbury Road property to them for $1 a year. But members in the affluent neighborhood asked the town planning and zoning commission to deny a permit to the community citing concerns that the Buddhist center's presence would reduce property values and increase traffic. The commission granted the permit but placed strict limitations on parking and occupancy.

Once they moved in, the Buddhists painted the house, tidied the landscape and made friends in the neighborhood. One neighbor now mows their lawn and others bring flowers and fruit for the Buddha. "We knew that the neighborhood would accept us once they understood us," said Le Chi Toai, the founder of the Buddhist association, who opened the first Vientamese grocery store in Hartford in 1976. "So we never really worried," she said.

Today the community includes engineers, computer experts, college professors, videostore owners and restaurateurs. Liem Hoang, whose family owns The Happy Wok restaurant in Guilford, served as a lieutenant colonel for the South Vietnamese Air Force before fleeing Saigon in 1975. He lost many friends in the war, he said, and his brother spent eight years in a Communist concentration camp. This month he will return to Vietnam for the first time since 1975, to visit his brother whom he has not seen since 1954. That year Mr. Hoang's family left their home in North Vietnam after the French lost to Ho Chi Minh and his forces at Dien Bien Phu. His brother stayed behind near a village outside Hanoi, he said.

Standing in an upstairs library with Mr. Vu, the association's president, Mr. Hoang recalled that he was overjoyed when he first arrived in Connecticut to learn that his old high school acquaintance from Saigon, Mr. Vu, had also resettled here. Mr. Vu had been a medical student in Vietnam before he was drafted into the South Vietnamese Air Force in the early 70's. After arriving in the United States with his wife and children, he received a master's degree from Syracuse University and is now a senior analyst for Aetna Insurance.

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"Liem and I used to play mah-jongg together when we were in the air force," Mr. Vu said. Mr. Hoang added, "And now we are best friends." Moral Striving and Meditation

The association estimates that there are about 3,000 to 4,000 Vietnamese living in Connecticut, many with ties to Buddhism. The religion and philosophy evolved from the teachings of Gotama Buddha, who lived in northern India in the 6th century B.C. One of its central doctrines is that suffering is inherent in life but that one can be liberated from it by moral striving, meditation and wisdom.

Buddhism is divided into several schools, each with its own set of scriptures. Most Vietnamese practice Mahayana Buddhism, a form that emphasizes compassion and service to others. Zen Buddhism is also a sect of the Mahayana school.

Like many Vietnamese, Mr. Hoang said, their families have practiced Buddhism for generations. But as a result of the Chinese domination of Vietnam beginning in the 15th century, the philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism are also well entrenched in the Vietnamese character.

"Buddhism is a spiritual base, whereas Confucianism provides rules to improve one's life physically and morally," he said. "But when you retire you give your life to the tao, you go inward, get closer to nature and find peace of mind." Invitation for Exiled Leader

During the Vietnam War, Buddhist monks received worldwide attention after several burned themselves to death in protest of the fighting. One of the most famous monks of that era, Thich Nhat Hanh, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in rebuilding villages and relocating refugees. Exiled from Vietnam following the war, he now leads retreats in the United States and Europe and has written extensively on issues of peace and nonviolence. The Connecticut Buddhists, many of whom know Mr. Nhat Hanh, say they will ask him to dedicate their new center and lead services and retreats when he is in New England. The association recently invited a Vietnamese Buddhist nun from Boston to lead meditation sessions once a month and to conduct separate services in English and Vietnamese.

Deborah Conklin became a member of the Connecticut Buddhist Association in 1987. Attracted to the Buddhists' emphasis on meditation, she regularly joins other Vietnamese and Americans for Thursday evening sessions and has attended retreats at Plum Village, a small community of Buddhists in Bordeaux, France, run by Mr. Nhat Hanh. One of the beauties of Buddhism, said Ms. Conklin, who was raised an Episcopalian, is its adaptability. Because of the diversity of cultures in the United States, she explained, American Buddhism, though still in the early stages, typically blends Buddhist practices from China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and Southeast Asia. Teaching Contentment

Ms. Conklin, who was recently laid off from her job in telemarketing, , added that practicing Buddhism is an effective way to calm the mind and cope with strong emotions. "It helps you accept that life is change and that so much of suffering comes from our attitudes," she said. "It teaches you to be satisfied with what you have and who you are."

To be a Buddhist, Mr. Hoang said, is to be always mindful of every aspect of a situation and to know that life is both dreadful and wonderful. He used his experience in Vietnam to illustrate: "We were a little country caught between two superpowers. The war forced us to kill and hate our own people. It undermined our culture and our morality."

For a time, he continued, he felt anger and hatred toward those who caused the destruction of his country. But as his Buddhist spirit deepened, he said he has come to understand and to have compassion even for those who were once his enemies. "Now," he said, "I just love everybody."

A version of this article appears in print on October 4, 1992, on Page CN13 of the National edition with the headline: Doors Open Wider as Buddhist Center Grows. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe